Fragment of a Queen's Face

[onlyknownothing]

Surviving portion of a yellow jasper sculpture from the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt, circa 1390–1336 BCE. This piece is on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and more of their works from that time can be found here.

This image of this piece is in the public domain, along with many others, as a part of the Met's Open Access program.

Comments

[kossai]

<3

Oh wow

[dismallyoriented]

I understand some of the appeal of fragmented works is how much of the work is also left to the imagination, in the way a sketch is evoked through only a handful of lines suggesting a whole. But also, wow.

I don't know that I've really seen yellow jasper before, so like. The color of the stone is striking, the way in which the lips were sculpted are striking, it all just comes across as really singular. I like it a lot.

Re: Oh wow

[onlyknownothing]

This is also one of the favorite things I posted when I was on cohost. I agree - something about how you imagine what must have been, and must have occurred to this piece since its creation to bring it to this state, really evokes emotion.